Under the Radar: While most 21-year-old graduates were either off partying or thinking about looking for their first job, Cora Barnes was busy setting up her own business with two friends.
"I graduated two weeks after we got our Companies' Registration Office papers. I didn't feel there was anything to lose and, because there were three of us, I didn't feel I was alone either. I would be fairly energetic and like a challenge," says Barnes of the decision in September 1999 to launch Three Q Catering.
Barnes and two friends, Cathie O'Reilly and Gerry Lynch, had been working together for a general recruitment company when they spotted a gap in the market for a recruitment agency tailored to the catering sector.
"We had all worked in catering in some shape or form and it was a division we had run in the other company," says Barnes, who is now managing director of the company. "We always said we were a niche in a niche market. The existing catering companies out there were concentrating on the permanent market.
"Not only would we be specialist in the catering recruitment market but we would also specialise on the temporary provision of staff which wasn't available at the time."
It proved to be exceptionally good timing. The economic boom had led to a spate of events being hosted by blue-chip companies. Hotels and event venues were crying out for experienced, temporary catering personnel to staff these one-off parties.
"There was also fatigue in the recruitment industry because the main players had been giving the same level of service to clients and you had gone from a client market to a candidate market. In essence, people were looking for a new supplier," adds Barnes.
Despite the obvious demand for the service being offered by Three Q, raising finance proved to be a huge hurdle. Two banks turned them down - one even refusing a few weeks' bridging finance to pay wages while the company waited for a £30,000 payment from a State body.
Barnes took out a credit union loan to pay the staff and the company received a £10,000 interest-free loan from microfinance company First Step which eased the cash-flow problems and allowed the company to trade until the money started to come in.
Working from a one-room office on the North Strand, using Lynch's PC and one landline, Three Q officially opened for business with five chefs and 20 waiting staff on its books.
"We all had different skills," says Barnes. "Someone could look after operations, somebody else could look after sales and marketing and another person could look after accounts. Between the three of us, we could balance each other and take the risk to go forward."
But Barnes and her two colleagues weren't beyond getting their hands dirty in the catering business either.
"On the morning we got the Shelbourne contract, the hotel needed two breakfast staff for the Side Door restaurant at 6.30am and we didn't have staff free on that day so Cathy and I went in," says Barnes.
Despite starting on a shoestring, Barnes says quality was the cornerstone of its existence and of all its activities. "We set up the company with the guiding principle that we would offer a quality service with qualified staff in the quantity our clients required. That's where Three Q came from," she says, adding that the company's motto is Amat Victoria Curam - Latin for success is gained by careful attention.
"If you look at any type of service, whether it is a plumber or a recruitment agency, it is the quality of service that will bring customers back. We are a profitable company but not at the cost of service. Our business is repeat business - 80 per cent of the clients that started with us eight years ago still use our services."
She says the company takes a partnership approach to the recruitment business, rather than looking solely at the employer as its client. This ensures that it finds the right employee for the right job, she says.
"There are three partners involved in the recruitment process - the agent, the candidate and the company," says Barnes.
That strategy seems to have paid off in spades. Today, Three Q is turning over €3 million annually, employs 10 staff running the business and, depending on seasonal factors and clients' demands, has anywhere between 75 and 100 catering staff on its books.
ONE THE RECORD
Name:Cora Barnes
Age:29
From:Originally from Stradbally on the Co Waterford coast. Moved to Co Offaly at the age of 13. Lives in Dublin.
Background:She graduated in social science from UCD in 1999 when she helped set up Three Q. Since then, she has undertaken a number of HR and sales training courses. In 2002, she undertook a post-graduate diploma in business and human resource management.
Admires:"I believe in the Bill Gates model of business - if you build, you can give. You can reach a point of success and then your success should enable you to do other things." Also admires Oprah Winfrey.
Most likes to:Travel. In May of this year, she travelled to Argentina to help establish a children's educational NGO. "My HR manager is from Argentina. She wanted to do something for Argentina and I wanted to do something in education, so we came together and set up a children's charity called KIDS - knowledge, independence and development of skills. It is an after-school education programme."
